The last of the three major Top 100 prospect rankings has been released, with Baseball America unveiling its list this morning. As expected, the Diamondbacks showed well, particularly on the pitching front.
All three of the club’s top pitching prospects – right-handers Trevor Bauer and Archie Bradley and left-hander Tyler Skaggs – appeared on each of the three rankings and third...

During a session with reporters, manager Kirk Gibson was asked what he wants to see out his young pitching prospects during spring training. It reminded him of something he wants to see out of all of his pitchers during spring training.
“If you want to stay in the game, you’ve got to be able to handle the bat,” Gibson said. “We have to be better, period. The whole team has...

The thing about the day pitchers and catchers report to spring training is that they don’t actually have to show up. All that’s necessarily is a quick phone call to somebody with the organization to let them know they’re in town, which for many of the players is unnecessarily anyway since they’ve been in town and working out at Salt River Fields for weeks already. Plus, today...

Stephen Drew’s recovery from the horrific ankle injury he suffered in July figures to be a key storyline during spring training. Will he be ready for Opening Day? Will he be the same player he once was?
Unfortunately, we don’t have any answers for you right now. We probably won’t have much on this until the end of March, at least nothing definitive.
Partly, that’s because...

Earlier this week, in a Yahoo article written by Steve Henson, Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall was mentioned in connection to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ soon-to-be-changing ownership situation and as a future commissioner of baseball.
It was kind of a double-whammy realization that the Diamondbacks could wind up losing the man some fans might consider the face of the franchise, but Hall this...

Since I’m sure you’ve all been sitting on the edge of your seats looking for the details about the arbitration-avoiding deals the Diamondbacks struck today – I know you have payroll spreadsheets to update like me – let’s start with that.
Catcher Miguel Montero and the team settled for $5.9 million. That’s a little below the midpoint ($6.1 million). The deal was...

Joe Saunders is on board for $6 million, bumping up the Diamondbacks’ payroll well north of where we (and they) figured it would be at the beginning of the off-season. I have a story on the payroll scheduled to run in the paper (and on the site) in the coming days, but for now let’s break down who’s getting what.
(Update, Jan. 19: Bumped up the pre-arb salaries to reflect rise in...

Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers and several of his top assistants traveled to the Dominican Republic last week to meet with club scouts and to tour the team’s academy in Boca Chica. And while they were there, they tried to take care of one last matter of business. Adding one final starting pitcher to their rotation.
They sat down with free-agent right-hander Bartolo Colon in a Dominican hotel,...

Update: Got a hold of GM Kevin Towers a little while ago. Here’s a little of what he had to say about bringing Saunders back.
*Towers said that even while the team was pursuing free-agent Bartolo Colon – a contingent of club officials met with him in the Dominican Republic last week only to see him sign with Oakland – he had remained in touch with Greg Genske, Saunders’...

For much of the off-season, left-hander Joe Saunders could be found working out at Salt River Fields in preparation for next season. But he hasn’t been there recently.
“Too awkward,” he said.
Saunders made it clear to anyone who would listen that he wanted to return to the Diamondbacks next season. The team had other ideas.
First, the Diamondbacks traded for Oakland right-hander...

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